The Open is officially over; for some of us we are left wondering what is next? Whether you are a competitive athlete or just like showing up, working out and going home, setting goals throughout the year is paramount to staying engaged and invested in our fitness. Whilst trolling the interwebs for some of my favorite CrossFitters and their take on the Open, I came across a brilliant blog post from Miranda Oldroyd. This post contains gems about goal-setting and staying focused, both inside and outside of the gym. You can see the post in its entirety here

Serious question – what am I supposed to do now? – Miranda Oldroyd

On Saturday I completed the final workout of the 2016 CrossFit Games Open. Every year until this one all that meant was that the stressful 5-6 weeks of the Open were over and I could get into focusing just on Regionals. The past two years my “season” lasted basically January thru July. It’s not even April yet!!!

Regardless of whether you are a competitor in some capacity or just like to train to stay in shape – I believe it’s always important to have some sort of goal with a date or a measurement to keep you motivated.

I’m a planner. I am one of those people who constantly makes lists, but then never looks at them. I get really excited when I get an opportunity to re-set like this because I can literally write down the days of the week and decide how I am going to fill them. Don’t worry, I already did that on the plane today.

On my little schedule I still made time for CF 4-5 days a week, where I will take class or join my crew of friends in some fun at CrossFit Chalk. Nothing like the hours of training that I was putting in the past few years. (Except for Saturdays when I will be up with Julian at Training Yard). I will also hit some of my favorite programming whenever I get a chance from both CrossFit Linchpin and Icon Athlete. I will definitely be adding back in more Hinshaw Aerobic Capacity and gymnastics training from Sean Lind.

I want to learn how to stand up paddle board and make a weekend hobby out of it. I made time for boxing, yoga and swim training – all once per week. I will definitely need to get back to the salsa lessons.

Eventually I plan on signing up for a few smaller competitions, potentially trying to rope some of my friends into teaming up with me just for fun. I mean…who wouldn’t love to see the girls from the 2015 NorCal Team show up together somewhere?!

I think for me, I need to pick some numbers, goals to reach for to keep me excited about training, but realistic with my new “less time to train” lifestyle. My goals will definitely include non CrossFitty things now because I have been having such a good time doing stuff outside of the box.

With that said, and even with the little schedule I made, I still wanted something measurable. Some goals to shoot for. When competing it was always about improving EVERYTHING as far as it would go. Run faster, lift more, lower times! I decided I would make a small list of pretty significant times and numbers and decide what I wanted to get back to and try to MAINTAIN for as long as possible just basically in my life.

So here is a list of a few things just off of the top of my head. I feel like this will give me something to measure progress and success at least, without giving myself the pressure of trying to get all of the way back to where I was. If it happens, cool, if not…these new numbers are the goal and I think are just fine.

ALL TIME PR

POST SURGERY PR

GOAL TO MAINTAIN

BACK SQUAT

295

215

265

FRONT SQUAT

255

205

225

DEADLIFT

345

315

315

SNATCH

180

150

165

CLEAN

220

185

205

JERK

220

185

205

MILE

6:30

NON EXISTENT

7:00

CINDY

25

25

25 +

FRAN

2:15

HAVEN’T DONE IT

2:15

Could definitely add a few more, but it was fun for me to kind of think about where I wanted to be and assess what I thought was a level that pushed me, but didn’t stress me out. And some numbers where I could still be proud of the fitness I had gained after all of this time and would have to continue to work hard to maintain.

If you participated in the Open and aren’t going to Regionals, right now is an important time. It’s time to be proud of what you accomplished and then decide where you want to go next. There is literally no right or wrong answer. The only way you can go wrong is to not make an assessment. Whether it’s to improve on a weakness that you found, or take your fitness in a completely different direction – make sure you are headed in the direction for the life you want to have. Also make sure that somewhere on that list is to have a really, really good time while getting fit.

What are your goals for this upcoming year? Have you set goals outside of the gym? If we have no measure of progress and no vision of where we want to go, how do we know how far we have come???

VERVE UPDATES
– Party tomorrow (Saturday) from noon to whenever you get tired of us! We will have utensils, plates, napkins, and some brews. Bring whatever you would like or nothing at all!